VFTR Pod Blog: Derrick and Richard White – The Game Winner, Fatherhood & Celtics Fandom

When Derrick White was traded to Boston two years ago, his excitement level may have been exceeded by only one other person on Earth: his father, Richard White.

Born in Boston in 1960, the elder White has been a diehard Celtics fan his entire life. On the latest episode of the View from the Rafters podcast, he and his son relive the life-changing day that brought Derrick back to his hometown, while also diving into several other topics revolving around their shared love for basketball.

Season 4, Episode 1 starts with Richard looking back on some of his favorite Celtics memories growing up, including how he and his father used to go to the same barbershop of which many Celtics Legends were customers. They would try to time up their haircuts after the team had gotten back from a long road trip with the hope of running into some of the players, which they often did; Richard had his ears lowered in the presence of Bill Russell, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, and others back during the Celtics’ golden days.

Richard’s love for basketball rubbed off on his son, as Derrick describes his father’s impact on the player he has become – particularly how it shaped him into a selfless, jack-of-all-trades type of teammate.

“I learned from him, just kinda always try to make the right play,” Derrick says.

Derrick touches on his timeline from his high school and college playing days in Colorado to the pros, before eventually falling on Feb. 10, 2022 – the day he was dealt from San Antonio to Boston. Right after receiving the news from Gregg Popovich, Derrick called his father, who became elated.

“I feel like he was the happiest person in the world that day,” Derrick says. “I think everybody else was – like my mom was worried about Hannah (his wife), worried about [his first unborn child], this and that … So they’re all thinking of all the real-world stuff, and my dad’s over here running around like, ‘You can wear No. 9 again!’”

It was a dream-come-true scenario not just because Derrick was going to the Celtics, but also because he was being inserted into a winning situation where he could still thrive as a top contributor.

“You can do whatever the team needs to win,” Richard tells his son, “and that’s always gonna help the team.”

The greatest example of White’s career to date was his 2023 Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 winning tip-in to beat the Miami Heat and force a Game 7. He and his dad both gave their perspective on the wild shot, which will go down as one of the most memorable plays in Celtics history.

Richard, who has built a strong social media following, jokes that if Marcus Smart’s missed attempt had bounced off the rim to the right instead of to the left, “then JT makes it and my Twitter (X) following takes a hit.”

But as we all know, it bounced to the left, and Richard got to fire off a proud-dad Tweet that read, “Omg that’s my boy,” which garnered nearly 1.5 million impressions.

Richard’s pride as a father has now transferred over to Derrick, who has had two children with his wife Hannah since being traded to the Celtics. On this topic, the father-son combo dives into some wholesome discussion on their admiration for each other and their love of being a parent.

Richard expresses how gratifying it is to have people come up to him and tell him what a fine man Derrick has turned into.

“The best part is like if we’re walking or doing something in the park or something and parents come up and goes, ‘Oh, my son or daughter just says Derrick is the best person in the world.’ And there’s no better compliment,” Richard says. “I mean, oh, he could score 27 points but you could not be a good person. But to have parents come up and say your son is just the most humble, and we like the way he carries himself, that’s the best gift a parent can get.”

The Celtics organization sees that every day in Derrick and is proud to call him one of their own.